(dnd) About characteristics' arrays

[pasko77]

Hello,
I was reading Yet Another Thread in which it is assumed that "average Joe" only has 10s and 11s in their stats.

I don't understand where this comes from. In the DMG I can see that "average person" is defined by "3d6 each stat", which means 10.5 of AVERAGE, non 10 and 11 in EVERY stat.

Obviously it does not matter for gaming purposes, but an "average" person should be statted with more "realistic" rolls.

3d6 means that 1 in 216 there is a 18, and, since everyone has 6 stats, it means that, averagely, every 36 persons, there is a 18 and a 3, randomly distributed.

This implies that in every village there can be a genius, or mr.Muscle, or whatever. And all remaining in the "average".

We can assume that those lucky guys are mainly those who become PCs or meaningful NPCs, since they shine, but even so, i think it's fallacious to consider every single passer-by as not having a stat bonus/malus.

Thoughts?

[Harperfan7]

Well, there's the average array (13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8) which is supposed to represent 95% of all people living beings. 5% are supposed to have the elite array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8).

What makes the pcs special is they have the elite array, pc classes, and higher wealth by level (from adventuring, the riskiest and highest paying proffession).

There are 18 str commoners, and 10 str fighters, but if you take 100 people with their 600 combined stats, the average is supposed to be 10 or 11. A ton of people have 18s, but very few of them have it in the most efficient stat for their build.

So yeah, it's actually not all that average to have straight 10's and 11's, but if someone did, they would be the "most average" person.

It really gets complicated when you add in age categories and higher level people/people with templates.

[AslanCross]

Actually, all monsters that have been printed have the 11, 11, 11, 10, 10, 10 array, only they're modified by their racial and hit die modifiers.

The 13-12-11-10-9-8 string is actually the nonelite array, used to customize a monster without necessarily making it stronger.

The elite array is reserved for creatures with PC class levels.

Here is the reference.

If monsters get the 11-10 string, I'd think humans have the same thing too, being the most 'normal' of all.